Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research

Dean's Message

Welcome to the web pages of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR), designed for Saint Mary’s University faculty, staff, graduate students, as well as prospective graduate students.

Since August 2017, it has been my distinct honour to serve the faculty, staff, and students of Saint Mary’s as the second full-time Dean of FGSR, following on the impressive 12-year program-building legacy of my predecessor, Dr. J. Kevin Vessey. Before that, as a professor of physics for 17 years at Saint Mary’s University, I experienced first-hand the support of world-class research and scholarship in arts, science and business, at all levels of this University—from individual faculty members to our excellent support staff—right up to the President’s Office.

With its recent expansion of an impressive diversity of graduate programs and research activities, Saint Mary’s is now poised to solidify our place as the most research intensive small university in Canada—even as the “small” ensures that we maintain our uniquely Santamarian advantages—including the benefit of a strong sense of community and accompanying mutual supports. We are among the most research-active small universities in Canada, making Saint Mary’s University a great place to pursue graduate studies!

Our professors in the Faculties of Arts, Science and Business offer 27 diverse PhD and Masters programs and one graduate diploma. The research-oriented Masters and Doctoral programs span the range of expertise areas of our professors. We also capitalize on that expertise of our faculty, and on Saint Mary’s tight community connections, to offer high calibre Professional Masters programs through our Sobey School of Business and through the Faculty of Science.

As we enter the 2018-19 Academic Year, we will be working with the Office of the Vice-President Academic and Research to launch consultations focused on the renewal of the University’s Strategic Research Plan, to be done in a coordinated fashion with the overall Academic Plan renewal. This renewal will enable us to take stock of our large increases from the last decade in research funding, in admitted graduate students, and in research projects undertaken, which will allow us to make clear commitments to the future vision of research direction and support across Saint Mary’s University.

To learn more about our mission statement, and some of the exciting partnerships and research supports of FGSR, please scroll down this webpage.

To learn more about joining our Santamaria community as a graduate student, I invite you to read more here.

I welcome anyone interested in the research and/or graduate programs here at Saint Mary’s University to feel free to reach out and contact a professor, a graduate program coordinator, or any of us in the Graduate Studies and Research Office.

Approved by both Senate and the Board of Governors in January, 2001, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research was officially launched in April of the same year to:

provide a co-ordinating and monitoring agency for graduate programs and graduate students, in order to ensure greater program continuity and foster university wide co-ordination; provide a strong central authority to streamline Faculty grant applications; and generate and disseminate Graduate Studies and Research Policy and Procedures.